Exercise: Quicksand

This is just a strange story all in itself. I'm not sure what to say about it.
The exercise: write a story about a dream, describing the familiar as if it were unfamiliar.
Exercise taken from The Periwinkle Pen.

Fun fact: the story alludes to a song. Honestly, the song helped me finish writing it from heavy doubt. & the song does not belong to me, obviously, and full rights belong to the owner(s).

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[Quicksand]

Not even in the midst of December was the weather cold. Chilly floated into St. Louis and repelled the long-lasting warmth somewhere in November; I don't remember exactly when the change occurred. But all that matters is that the weather didn't keep people confined indoors and that I could walk outside without wearing a ridiculous fluffy coat that made my body appear thicker than it already was.

I felt my lips curl into a smile as I walked up a plain sidewalk, staring ahead at the upper end of a large pavilion. In my vision I saw two buildings connected by an over passing roof that blocked off rain, hail, and snow. To my left, long stretches of trimmed green grass were fenced into rectangles by dark green chain fences. To my right were plain bricks of yet another building with a few trees scattered every few feet (to be earth-friendly, to make the place look better, to quench the thirst of parched environmental activists who wouldn't shut up). Neither of the sides were much of an attraction unless sports teams practiced in the fields, but even then, I didn't care. Sports wasn't my thing, and not because I was chubby either. I could play ultimate Frisbee longer that the next guy and keep trucking even from sweat and fatigue. The scenery wasn't the source of my smile.

The sidewalk cut at a right angle near the overhanging roof, jutting off into a different direction. I sharply turned with the sidewalk and met people who were sitting on steps outside of doors. The majority of them were males, all of them wearing faded blue jeans with holes and tears in them. Graphics tees with assorted bands promoted by Hot Topic covered their chests, and above the tees were jackets. One male in particular stuck out to me, one wearing a gray over his long locks of curled gold hair that rivaled Goldilocks’. He waved at me, and I nodded in reply.

Only one person was standing up, and she stood across from the group against a separate door with no steps. She glanced at me with her freckled face and smiled, her teeth peeking through her lips. As I reached her, she wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer. "Hello," she said, her voice like a preteen boy's voice hitting puberty.

The crowd of the guys smirked and chuckled. "You look like boyfriend and girlfriend," one of them called out.

"Whatever," the girl dismissed as her voice hit a rough undertone, waving the remark away with her hand. My face warmed as she rubbed my shoulder. I wanted to glare at the speaker, to bite back, to show discontent. But the girl stayed calm and collected, so I blended with her atmosphere--to keep her from embarrassment--

A hot breath hit my ear as I heard the rubbing-sandpaper voice whisper, "Wait here a bit, I left something in my locker." Before I could reply a simple "okay," she retreated into the doors behind her.

I was left with a bunch of rowdy boys she hung with, most or all of them most likely stoners (hinting to one who wore a beanie with hemp leaves on it).

One perk of physical flawless is the inability to keep people's attention for long. The boys turned to one another and chatted among themselves, their interest flipping instantly like a light switch: on to off. The beads of sweat, ready to develop, halted and shut down. The responsibility for entertaining them wasn't on my shoulders.

The curly-haired boy heaved himself to his feet and walked to a dull brown-painted pole, the same color as the buildings' doors. He leaned an arm against the pole and kept his feet inches from the pole, an attempt at a "cool" pose as far as I could tell. He motioned with his head to join, using the same movement people used as a substitute for "'sup." Joining him, I wrapped an arm around the pole, my arm distanced from his, our faces closer than first anticipated.

"So."

"So."

Our heads slightly nodded back and forth. I continued to let my head metronome forward and back to invisible music as the boy looked behind him, quickly surveying the area and the other guys. When his eyes locked with mine again, the corners of his lips twitched upward, and after another second, restriction crumbled, letting the smirk reveal itself. "So how far have you two gone?"

The slight static sounds of the other guys diminished like a candle out of wax. The boy didn't speak loudly, but somehow, he caught everyone else's attention.

I shrugged and said, "Not too far, I guess."

"Have you thought about sex?"

A choked chuckle tumbled from my mouth, and my hand flew up to cover it. One of the boy's eyebrows arched upward, his eyes unmoving. His growing grin deceived his nonchalant cover up. Clearing my head, I tried to recompose myself, brushing my hair to one side. "If only I knew how to properly screw a chick."

The boy's body began to shake with the background sound of a low rumbling laughter drumming into sound waves. He laughed, ducking his head to hide his yellowing teeth fully exposed, and he beat his arm against the pole. He turned to the crowd and shouted, "Did you hear? She doesn't know how to screw a chick!" Immediately the crowd of boys exploded into laughter like a live audience crowd waiting for the "applause" card.

My lips caved inward, hiding them, and felt my cheeks burning. Laughing faces stayed constant, mocking and pointing, knee-slapping and beating at their legs, falling to the ground and shaking their heads.

Wiping an invisible tear from his eye, the boy's laughter swindled to pants and sighs. "That is hilarious. What a laugh!"

Before I could utter anything, the girl returned, arm around my shoulder again. She glanced over at the boys catching their breath and then turned to me, smiling. "Shall we go?"

I nodded and smiled in return. We walked toward the building opposite of the crowd, and the girl dropped her hand, allowed some space in between us, and then took hold of my hand. I pushed the door open for the both of us, and once the door closed behind us, locking out the howling laughter of the boys, the warmer air brushed past our faces.

We walked into the building smiling, but after a second’s look, the smiles dropped to frowns.

People bustled throughout the hallway, packed tight and walking in opposite directions. The girl and I exchanged looks before gaping on. The day was late, and never have people still inhabited the hallway during such an hour. Clubs and activities caused no such commotion nor have they dug deep into the day. In other words, there was no apparent reason why—if it was possible—every student who attended school still loitered about.

The girl next to me muttered under her breath and squeezed my hand. Without explanation she dragged me into the crowd as I tried to keep balance in my boots. People made way for the girl like the seas parting for Moses with only a glance behind their shoulders while pressing the crowd into the walls. We turned into another hallway known as the senior hallway, one with less people. I expected the girl to stop since the particular hallway was her favorite, but instead, she continued her pathway throughout the hallways. On one entire side were windows that revealed the beautiful courtyard laden with walkways and big bushes. On the other were large red lockers hiding a door to a library in their midst.

Questioning could have helped me, but I decided to just go with the flow. As long as we could do what was planned, it didn't matter. Like Machiavelli wrote, the end justified the means. But the masses of students still flocked in the hallways sealed my mouth shut for the moment.

The main hallway of the school also burst to the seams with students. I couldn't help gaping as the girl continued to lead me. "You've got to be kidding me," I murmured, but the girl either couldn't hear over the people's buzzing chatter or could care less about a pointless comment.

We elbowed people out of the way disregarding the polite manners in order to reach the cafeteria, which was—you guessed it!—filled to the max by people. Bright and dark colors of clothes and skin and bags and backpacks hid the dusty blues of the cafeteria. Now the people surrounding us glared and shouted at us as we pushed on, creating a pathway of compressed teenagers.

With a great effort we finally made it through the cafeteria and into the school's kitchen. The area, devoid of people, was occupied by rows of ovens, stoves, fryers, microwaves, storage shelves, the general supplies expected in kitchens—except for a white silo, taller than humans (and standing on stilts) but still fitting in the room that stood against a wall to the side. No odors hung in the air, and no staff members were in sight. The kitchen was abandoned, wrapped in solitude, and we ripped away the paper and hid from the world.

The girl eyed the short white silo, her eyes resting on the silver ladder up the side. I looked at it as well with little interest, but my eyes widened when the girl jumped onto the latter. As she began climbing I asked in a harsh whisper, "What the hell are you doing?"

"There shouldn't be anything inside this thing, which means this can allow us some privacy."

I bit my bottom lip, just watching the girl continue climbing higher until she dropped down over the edge. She then swore and shouted, "Christ, what is this stuff?"

A gasp escaped me, and I threw myself at the ladder, scrambling up the silo. My heart skipped a few beats, still tumbling around from the previous fantasy of privacy and now from what could have gone wrong; what was in the silo that caused the girl to curse so?

I peered over the edge to see the girl, arms raised above her shoulders, face twisted into a scowl, soaking in white-yellow liquid that appeared to have lumpy materials in it. Cringing, I said, "That looks like some sort of soup or chowder."

"Yeah, I think so too. Come in."

I stared. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Close your eyes if you must."

If the girl could endure standing in food—and, I thought, the school better not try to sell the concoction the next day at lunch—I supposed I also could. After all, we were alone in the kitchen. No one could tease us for standing in some nice, warm soup.

So I sucked in some breath and heaved my legs over the edge, letting them dangle for a moment. They were suddenly jerked down, pulling the rest of my body with it, and I squealed in surprise as the white-yellow liquid smothered me. When I felt my feet hit a surface, by body untouched from the waist-up, I heard the girl's boyish laugh ring and echo in the silo. If I was not aware of who was in the silo with me, I would have assumed that a twelve year old boy jumped in with me.

She took my arm and led me to a rounded edge of the silo, and once her back made contact with the wall, she wrapped both arms around my body. I returned the gesture with a smile on my face. Mentally I sighed with relief, but the stress soon returned. I could swear that something from within the soup grabbed at my legs, slowly edging me down. Yet the girl did not move one bit.

A fear hit me: what if I would be pulled down and lost forever, never to see the girl again? Never to see my loved ones, the school, the millions of people roaming the halls, or never to taste soup? Did the pulling mean that my time was limited? My body shook, and in my mind, I thought of a farewell.

"I cannot believe how lucky I am."

The girl looked at me with a curious stare, and her thin lips parted as she said, "What do you mean by that?"

The sensation of my feet being dragged down shot through my legs stronger than ever. I tightened my grip around the girl, sucking in a breath. She pressed me closer, her hands hardening against my back—to my surprise, it felt like a comfort—and our eyes met. Releasing all the breath from before, my voice quivered as I said, "There are many reasons why I am lucky. Months ago, the helpless notion of my lonely future gripped me. I felt undesirable, horrendous, all the bad adjective that you could think of. On top of that, I thought that my parents would disown me if they knew about my secret crush. What my friends would think of my secret crush. What everyone else would think about my secret crush. But now here I am, standing with said secret crush, happier than I can put into words, even if we are standing in food. For this reason I hope you're as happy as I am."

"I am happy," she started, "very happy. Don't ever doubt that—ever. If I was unhappy, we wouldn't be together anymore. Drink some confidence juice, stop being scared of what people think of us, and let us keep having fun with smiles on our faces."

I tried not to laugh. The girl was never good at pep talks despite her hearing it constantly from playing sports, but nonetheless, my heart began to feel lighter. With our eyes still locked, I smiled. "I guess I'm just nervous. I wasn't sure where this relationship would lead me—us."

Then I thought of something.

"You’re right," I said, taking her hand and straightened my back. The pulls on my feet stopped, and then the soup's sinking reversed, leaving me standing normally, eye level with the girl. Once the sensation completely left, I grabbed the girl's other hand and stepped back, pulling the girl away from the curved wall and to the middle of the silo. For a moment, we leaned forward and let our foreheads touch, drowning out the soup's smell, replaced with the girl's cologne.

Then the girl broke eye contact, her eyes fleeting to the direction of the kitchen's door;  thumps of shoe against ground leaked through the door's edges. I released one hand and reached for the top edge of the silo. The girl smiled, like she knew what I was about to do, and proud of it.

We stepped out of the silo, the soup dripping off our ruined clothes, and walked out of the door and along with the others.

Aywas: Standing Stones

Final piece written from January 15-21 for Aywas.
The point of the story was to explain what happened at the breeding place, the Standing Stones, minimum 2500 words. Another task, to describe why a Berry Nut was teal, is also included.

Last filler, I swear!

NOTE: None of the content of stories for Aywas belong to me.

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[Standing Stones]

Grey stones with cracks exposing the color of the sky towered over three visitors that stood in the midst of the huge rocks. Blue stained the stones where they came in contact with the ground. The stones created a ring of five, and in the center point of the ring they created was a small circular hole that shot rays the same light shade of blue as the stones.

Of the three visitors, a human female said, "This place feels... magical."

The words spoken from every visitor's mouth.

The other two visitors, one a Reve and the other an Oakl, glanced at the large rocks. Never had they imagined to gain the privilege of standing in the presence of the Standing Stones. Tales of this place floated among the Aywas' ears, carried throughout the air like bees pollinating. Magical place. Happiness land. Love Cove. The best place in Ay.

The glow never wavered, and the human female wrinkled her brow. After a glance at the stones, she removed an item from her pocket. The yellow, rounded object shined in the blue glow, and warm wind washed over the group. The visitors closed their eyes and took a breath, and in an instant, all the stress was exhaled from their noses, from their mouths, from their bodies, and from their minds.

Glimpsing the hole in the ground, the human female placed the yellow coin on top of it, still unsure of the correct placement or usage; like the two other visitors, this was also the human's first time at the stones. She looked down at the Reve and the Oakl, watching their reactions, and their eyes just returned the incredulous look. She took a breath and let go of the coin and stepped back out of the circle the stones created.

The coin now blocking the rays of blue from the hole, the Standing Stones' glow began to dim. The Reve and the Oakl glanced at each other as the human felt her breath quicken. The magical aura was fading, and it was because she misplaced the breeding coin! Her body lurched forward, but before a finger could breach the border of the ring, the coin was sucked into the hole.

The three visitors simply stared at the hole, which was, after all, smaller than the breeding coin had been. The air grew still, and nothing moved other than the rising and falling chests of the three visitors. Trying her best not to move her head too much, the human's eyes rolled this way and that, wondering if a critter snuck up on them and played a trick. But no outside presence was felt.

A low whispering voice slipped past the human's ears. "Your task is done. You may leave."

Not realizing her back had been bent since she stared at the hole, she twisted back to straighten her spine. She opened her mouth to speak to the Reve and the Oakl, but stopped herself in time. She simply smiled and waved lightly, and after the gestures, she turned and walked away from the pair.

The two Aywas glanced at one another and then approached the center of the circles. The cracks beneath the gigantic stones began to glow blue again, this time the glow brighter than a generic light bulb yet not any brighter than the sun that shone in the sky. The Reve noticed the glowing first and flapped a wing toward it. As it squawked out words, the cracks ingrained in the stones shone brighter and brighter until the eyes of the Aywas closed shut from the pain. A white light flashed, and a gush of heated air whipped past them, who, by now, had stood closer together for the sake of having another close in case of danger.

And the moment passed just like that.

It was the Oakl who first reopened its eyes; first one, slowly, looking around, and then the other. It nudged the Reve to open its eyes as well, and they could both see that the Standing Stones looked as normal as any other. Grey stones. Black cracks. Blue glows. Brown ground.

“Did that light do something?” the Reve.

“Doesn’t look like it,” the Oakl answered.

Before they could speak again, a hooded figure poked its head around one of the stones, unnoticed. It stepped away from hiding and sneakily approached the pair. On a belt hung three different bulged pouches, all tied shut with a simple strand of rope.

The figure smiled from under the hood. "I am glad you two are here."

The figure could not have been any bigger than either of the two Aywas, but the Reve and the Oakl jumped at the sight. "Shhh"ing, the figure lifted a finger to its mouth. "I am not here to cause you harm. I have received the payment of your breeding coin, and you two look delightful! Just saying."

Bowing, the figure reached to its belt and took from it one bag, and upon doing so, it removed the bag. By now the two Aywas could do nothing but watch the hooded figure as it dipped its hand in the bag. The bag bulged in a few more places, from the figure's hand swishing around, and the figure chuckled as he glimpsed the looks of the visitors.

"Curious, curious I see. The mystery will not last for too long!"

With a swift upward movement, the figure removed its hand from the bag, gold glitter floating up into the air and falling down like sprinkles of snow drifting on a Christmas Eve night. The color glimmered in the glow glows of the stones, and the little flakes of the rich color fell on the Reve's feathers, on the Oakl's antlers, on the Reve's beak, on the Oakl's body, before their eyes, and on to the ground around them.

The impact of the movement displaced the figure's hood, and when the two visitors finally broke out of the trance initiated by the gold sparkle powder, they could see white locks of hair flowing down, not going past the figure's large yellow eyes. The eyes blinked, realizing they could see clearly without the scope of vision being cut by the hood, but made no movement to recover most of its black face.

The Reve gasped as it saw the entirety of the figure's face. It opened its beak to speak--

--but had to shut its eyes from the sparkles that bombarded its face. Again the Reve cawed at the creature with wispy hair, but it only laughed in reply. The creature now withdrew its second pouch. It untied it rather quickly and began to skip around the Reve and the Oakl in a circle, all by its lonesome when skipping is more enjoyable in a group. While skipping the creatures chucked more of the silver sparkes directly into the Aywas' face.

Sparkles got caught in the Oakl's open mouth and nostrils, and the Oakl began to cough and spew. His eyes blinked rapidly to avoid the sparkles from getting in his eyes, and the attempt was working. "Why are you throwing this at our faces?" the Oakl demanded.

The creature stopped moving and began to giggle. "Because magical powder is so pretty and fun to fling around! But do not worry, the sparkles will disappear in just a bit."

The Reve fluttered its wings about and narrowed its eyes at the creature. "You look too suspicious to lurk around the magical Standing Stones, let alone be a part of it, you Xaoc!"

The Xaoc blinked, and its smile did not falter. "But here I am in the Standing Stones, not lit aflame, not brushed away by their power, nor dropping dead. I am indeed welcome here at the Stones, for I am the one who oversees all breedings."

The Reve and the Oakl glanced at one another incredulously. But all the Xaoc stories they were told of consisted of evil beings, yet here was one that was in charge of such an honor as breedings? The day had been full of surprises so far. First, their owner was squealing in delight over a little yellow coin, then she ran off to gossip with others, flashing photographs of the pets in the lair, and then the owner lead the Reve and the Oakl to the Stones (which the Aywas still could not recover fully from the shock) and leave them in a stupor of wonderment and wariness. And to top the whole day off, here was a Xaoc skipping like a pansy and twirling powder from bags!

Analyzing the day began to make their heads hurt.

Distracted, the Reve and the Oakl did not notice that the Xaoc was removing its third and final bag tied around its belt. It removed the string holding it closed and pulled an object out. Only when clunking sounds were formed did the Aywas glance back at the Xaoc, broken from their headache trance. The sky dark, the night surrounding them, the Aywas could not see the object correctly; they only saw a shine that reflected smoothly off an object, one that they could assume was sharp or metallic.

A battle axe was the first to come to their minds.

"No!"

Their shout was too late, for all of a sudden, a sharp flash attacked their eyes, blinding them. The Oakl thrashed about kicking its back legs while the Reve flapped its wings furiously, letting itself fly inches from the ground and hover before dropping down again. In the next moment the Reve jolted from a sharp pain stabbing its left wing, and the Reve hopped back on its feet with a surprised squawk. The Oakl stopped pounding its legs on the ground and stared at the Reve with wide eyes. And it blinked.

"I'm so sorry for stepping on your wing."

"Why am I here to breed with you again?"

Laughter caressed their ears, and on the ground not far from them was the Xaoc, bright open mouth open to reveal whiteness (that was not teeth, as far as the Aywas could tell). Sitting upright the Xaoc brushed an imaginary tear from its eye. "Priceless" it piped. "Such beauties, but you don't seem fond of one another. And it seems its against your will too, all up to the human who dropped you two off here. Such is the burdened life of the gorgeous and desired!"

The Reve was ready to scrutinize the Xaoc when a familiar gleam hit her eyes again. Unharmed next to the Xaoc was a black, complex, old fashioned camera. "What is that?" the Reve asked.

The Xaoc looked over and picked up the camera. "It looks old, but it behaves as if it was just created yesterday. It works like a modern camera, and it's purpose is to take your pictures for the breeding."

The Oakl frowned. "If only pictures were needed, then what was the use of coming here?"

"To retain the Standing Stone's magical reputation, of course," said the Xaoc, expression unchanging and still pleasant. "You did not actually think anything truly special happened here, right? You see, Aywas of any species may come here, but that is not too logical when thinking biologically, is it? Breeding is a lovely word, for it creates images of smiling little offsprings cooing 'mommy,' 'daddy,' and any other variant if gender is unrecognizable. But the truth is, there is nothing intimate that happens. This place is not magical (if anything the magical being here is yours truly) because what happens here is simply not a miracle.

"Again, think to yourselves, how would crossbreeding be possible biologically? Thing is, it does not. Pictures are taken because they are the only things that matters. How the breeding process goes is that we take your pictures, mix and match colors, unique perks, and markings and merge it into the same species, a hybrid, like in your case, or pick and play with the genus of a parent. What realistically tarnishes the once beautiful image of breeding is that the breeding process is all completed by humans under my control. Humans who sit and slave for me to design your babies. Humans do all the work that tear away intimacy replaced with professional business. Then I order another human to send all of the babies out so that the parents of the offspring become delighted. The humans will do anything if you threaten to eat their brains out."

The final breath of the truth left the Xaoc as it returned to simply standing and smiling at the Reve and the Oakl. The Aywas stared, dumbfounded even more, as their slow, spongey minds soaked in the information. Several times, the Oakl's mouth would open, hesitate, and then close, and the same movements happened with the Reve and its beak.

Moments passed before the Oakl could finally let the words out. "Why are you telling us this horrible truth when we will end up telling all the other Aywas and never give you business again for your dirty little production?"

The Aywas gasped internally as the Xaoc's hair rose threateningly and its mouth became crooked and menacing. "Why the hell else would I tell you other than the fact that it's deliciously fun to see your blasted little reactions?"

Before the Reve and the Oakl could run away from the Standing Stones, the Xaoc stuck out its black tongue and revealed its opaque eyes. Like the camera, a sharp flash was released, and the Reve and the Oakl fell to the ground. The Xaoc covered its face and hair with its hood again and walked away quietly, whistling to itself.

"Memory wiping is a delight."

The Reve and the Oakl returned to their lair with a human female walking in front of them. In between the two Aywas was a freshly hatched Ippo, which, as an egg, traveled from the hands of magic to the Phoenix Tree to the hands of the human to the Standing Stones (where the magic began) and finally in between its rightful parents. The Ippo smiled a babyish smile even though it was larger than both of its parents; but age-wise, it was as tiny as a fauna.

Once at the lair, the Ippo plopped down in an empty area and giggled at its parents, who sat down before him (and by now the human had left). The Reve and the Oakl looked at each other and nodded, knowing the perfect story to tell. The Oakl retreated into the lair and returned with a teal Berry Nut, and it held the nut up to the Ippo's crossed eyes.

"There have been many theories behind the reason berry nuts are teal, but the real reason berry nuts are teal goes back many years. It has been said that there is a tiny bunch of blue seeds inside the nut which can be used to grown your very own berry nut trees. These blue seeds, although tiny, are what make the nut blue and provide the flavour, but after a witch cursed them all with plant leaves, it turned them all teal and they have never been the same since.

"And this, my child, is magic."